Bishop Experiences Joy of the Universal Church at Eucharistic Congress

Bishop Michael G. Duca found his experiences of coming together with people from across the nation, other countries, and his own flock of the Diocese of Baton Rouge at the National Eucharistic Congress July 17–21 in Indianapolis to be one of the joys of being a bishop, priest, and faithful Catholic. 

“You can't overstate how Catholic this event was in the best sense of the word; Catholic, of course, means universal,” said Bishop Duca. “This was truly, at least from the United States’ point of view, a universal gathering of the church of the United States. And you felt it in the variety and diversity of people that were there.”  

With Masses offered daily in a variety of languages, the bishop said he could feel the church’s universality at the Congress. 

The bishop said the spirit of the church of the United States was present for him personally as well as in a universal sense in being gathered to celebrate the Eucharist. 

“You definitely felt that strongest at Mass. Everybody was participating,” Bishop Duca said. “It was amazing to me to have upwards of 50,000 people in a moment of prayer and no one really made a noise, and one occasion not a sound was made at all, and everyone was respectful. 

“I really thought it was daring to have as part of the night rallies to 25-40 minutes of quiet before the Blessed Sacrament. I think it was a transformative moment for the whole gathering at the Congress.” 

Within the large assembly, Bishop Duca rekindled old friendships from when he was a young priest, youth group leader, and spiritual director for the SEARCH Retreat Program. One of these people was Steve Angrisano, an internationally known composer, presenter, and music missionary. 

Bishop Duca encountered four priests who were seminarians at Holy Trinity Seminary in Dallas when he served as rector there from 1996 to 2008. 

The bishop also met a lot of people from the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Amid the large gathering, the Baton Rouge group met together and had a picture taken. 

“It was nice to meet up with them in a more relaxed situation. But it also brought up the fact that there were a lot of children with their families. And for a large family traveling that distance from Baton Rouge, if they flew or drove it was a monumental task. 

Bishop Duca with the Pedraza Family in the Congress Expo Hall.

“I noticed the young children of these families were having fun too, and they were enjoying being there.”   

The Congress gave Bishop Duca the opportunity to visit with his fellow bishops and they sat together in Lucas Oil Stadium. 

The bishop got in some physical exercise as well, logging in 14,000 – 16,000 steps a day on his smartphone step tracker. 

“That’s a lot of steps for me,” the Bishop Duca said with a smile. 

Most important, the bishop saw people walking in unity of faith. 

“We truly came together to celebrate our faith,” said the bishop. “I always talk about celebrations as taking time to enjoy the good things that are already ours … taking time to appreciate them like a birthday. You stop on a birthday and give thanks for this child’s birth or your own personal birth and life.” 

He added, “And what we were doing as a communal church of the United States was celebrating the gift of the Eucharist in our life of faith.” 

In the years leading up to the Congress, Bishop Duca witnessed a revival of devotion to the Eucharistic. There has been more instruction on the Eucharist, more people participating in Eucharistic adoration, and more parishes in the diocese hosting Eucharistic processions. 

The bishop said, “One of the other elements that the bishops tried to inject into this is that adoration and appreciation of the Holy Eucharist is not meant to be simply lived in the quiet of the chapel, but we should go out into the ministry of service of the poor to live the Gospel in our lives.”  

This is already one of the ongoing ministries within the diocese, according to the bishop. He pointed out that when the St. Juan Diego eucharistic pilgrimage route to the Congress stopped in Baton Rouge there was a procession from Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Baton Rouge to St. Joseph Cathedral. At the cathedral, representatives from Vagabond Missions, which brings the hope of the Gospel message to inner-city teens, spoke to the pilgrims.   

The bishop compared the exuberance of the Congress assembly to the times in Rome when the pope visits the people during the Wednesday morning audiences or the Sunday noon Angelus. 

“You think it would be solemn, but in fact it’s not. There are people cheering and singing,” said Bishop Duca, whose episcopal motto is “Hope in the Lord.” 

“This was an event truly of hope because hope is the virtue that is able to see the future,” said Bishop Duca. “When you are filled with hope and have possibilities for the future, your imagination is alive with new possibilities.” 

At a time when people say, “the church is dying” and “people are leaving the church,” good things are happening in the diocese, the bishop pointed out, such as people going on ACTS or private retreats, more people participating in Eucharistic adoration and publicly displaying their devotion in Eucharistic processions, dynamic and well-respected ministries for the poor such as Catholic Charities and the St. Vincent de Paul Society, successful Catholic schools, etc. 

“We have so many positive things in our diocese that are showing great life and optimism in our church. We need to continue to focus on those and we will focus on those if we as a church put our focus on Christ and the Eucharist as a sign of our unity,” Bishop Duca said.